If you have turned on the news or gone on any form of social media in the past year, it is almost guaranteed that you have had a run in with “cancel culture”. Cancel culture can be defined as a modern form of ostracism in which someone is called out or held accountable for racist, sexist or other harmful wrongdoings to others. While the word “cancel” has a negative connotation, the new trend has been extremely effective in combating hate speech and other issues in which celebrities have often gotten away with in the past.
Some of the most recent examples that come to mind include, Ellen DeGeneres, Morgan Wallen, Shane Dawson and even Jimmy Fallon. Sometimes we view celebrities as these perfect icons but when some dive deeper into their past, racist tweets and comedy sketches reappear or evidence of mistreatment comes out and it is something we need to acknowledge.
More recently, Gina Carano from The Mandalorian took it upon herself to put posts on her social media accounts comparing being a modern-day conservative to a Jewish person in the Holocaust. Now, call me crazy, but doesn’t it seem like the Holocaust should just be off limits?
Now, how do celebrities handle being canceled? It can vary from celebrity to celebrity, but the most common practice is to release some form of apology via social media. Sometimes these apology videos seem like they were just copied and pasted from one to the next with the world unsure of how genuine the canceled party is. Some people are adamite against cancel culture as they feel that it is unfair to attack famous people for past words or political views. But to be fair, generally the most outspoken are those in the middle of their own cancellation.
Do celebrities really deserve such destruction of their careers over a few tweets from 2012? The only person that can answer that is yourself, but it shouldn’t go without saying that fame does not give a person more chances to redeem themselves than any average person. Accountability is important if we as a society hope to combat racism, homophobia, sexism and any other hate in our world.